1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of information systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to electronic communications and privacy.
2. Background Information
Advances in computer technology have led to personalization of computers. Once reserved for large enterprises, computers have become affordable and available to the masses. Coupled that with advances in networking and telecommunication technologies, increasingly computers are being networked together. Companies are racing to put their businesses on public data networks, such as the Internet. Other non-profit and government entities are doing the same. Information has become readily available with a few mouse clicks. As a result, increasingly users go on-line to electronically communicate with each other through emails, get their news, do their shopping, meet their friends or simply other users on-line.
Currently, under the prior art, a more sophisticated user may have as many as a handful of email addresses, a work related email address hosted by the IT establishment of the user's employer, a personal email address hosted by the user's Internet access provider (as part of the “access service”), and one or more personal email addresses hosted by the free email services, such as Hotmail.com, Yahoo mail, and the like (to attract the user to visit the site). The user might use the work related email address for work related communication only, and the other email addresses for personal communications, thereby segregating the personal communications from the scrutiny of the employer. The user might further use the personal email address hosted by the access provider for personal communications with certain group of users, such as friends and family members, while using the personal email addresses hosted by the free email service providers for general communication with other users/establishments of no particular relationship, including content and service providers, e-commerce sites, and the like.
Like its brethren of the earlier era, the “snail” mail, to many users, one of the most annoying aspects of this modern world of electronic communications is the receipt of unsolicited emails, often referred to as SPAM mails. The problem is further compounded by the fact that many Internet access, content, and service providers, e-commerce sites and the like (hereinafter, simply web sites or web site operators) routinely sell their email lists to other parties of interest. When viewing an “in-box”, there is no easy way to distinguish between the legitimate mails from the illegitimate mails. The problem is even worse, if the user consolidates all his/her emails of the various email accounts into a single “in-box” (for ease-of-use).
Thus, a more user friendly, in particular, a more private approach to conducting electronic communications is desired.